Percy Jackson meets Celtic mythology in this middle grade adventure.

Where do I even begin? This book was amazing and I’ll be making it my personality for the next month. Erika Lewis wove Celtic mythology into a whirlwind of an adventure set at a magical school filled with friends, enemies, creatures of myth, tests and a backstory that races against time.

The Otherworld is at war, and The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts trains warriors. Kelcie Murphy, a foster child raised in the human world, is dying to attend.

Securing a place at AUA means meeting Scáthach, the legendary trainer of Celtic heroes. It means learning to fight with a sword. It means finding a group of friends who will stick with her no matter what. It means harnessing her hidden powers and—most importantly—finding out who her parents are, and why they abandoned her in Boston Harbor eight years ago.

When Kelcie tests into the school, she learns that she’s a Saiga, one of the most ancient beings in the Otherworld. Secretive, shunned, and possessed of imposing elemental powers, the Saiga are also kin to the Otherworld's most infamous traitor. And now she’s been forced to partake in his plan.

But Kelcie is a survivor, and she’ll do whatever it takes to find her parents and her place in their world. Even if that means making a few enemies.

Overall this book was 5 out of 5 stars and I can’t wait to get a physical copy once it comes out. Thank you so much to Netgalley, MacMillan/Tor/Starscape and Erika Lewis for an advanced copy to review in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Kelcie Murphy is basically a Celtic-inspired Percy Jackson meets Harry Potter with a few additional twists and turns! It starts *very* similarly to the PJ series, and these similarities put Kelcie Murphy at a disadvantage. It makes it almost impossible not to compare the two, and Kelcie Murphy feels a little flat in comparison.

I wish there had been a little more time spent world-building and describing what was going on. There is a glossary in the back, but I didn’t know about it until the end 😅 It makes everything a little hard to follow in the beginning. Unfortunately, I’m not as well-versed in. Celtic mythology, so I feel like there was a lot that I missed due to a lack of description. There is eventually some building that happens, but it comes a little too late. All the important bits seem to go by too quickly, and things start to feel a little jumbled. The characters don’t seem to react to things like they should… I just wish things felt more important to the characters in the book.

At the beginning, Kelcie is a hard character to love. She’s spunky, but she seems to get away with everything she says and does and she feels a little overpowered. However, as the story grows, Kelcie does as well. She had a wonderful group of friends that are super easy to love! It’ll be interesting to see how they develop through the series.

Overall, this is a decent start to a series with some super-familiar elements, a heartwarming group of main characters and fun creatures. This is definitely a fun book for kiddos, but I don’t think there’s enough depth for older readers.

I almost gave up on this one because I thought it was going to be just your run-of-the-mill, chosen-one story. I'm glad I kept reading because it is a bit of a chosen-one story, but it's creative, engaging, and full of fun action moments that kept pulling me into the story and the characters.
Kelcie is a fish out of water in the Otherworld, yet she's willing to work hard in order to earn a space in the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts. She doesn't only want a chance to discover who her parents are, she wants to make sure that the thing she was forced to do right before she ended up in the Otherworld doesn't end up destroying everything.
There are secrets galore here, with some dropping all the way into the very last pages. It makes sharing the exploration of a whole new world alongside Kelcie exciting and constantly surprising. It also helps that the magic system and creatures are familiar enough to not need much exploration beyond the creative twists that Lewis has given them.
Overall, it's a great middle-grade adventure full of memorable characters and scenes.
Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Starscape Books for the early read!

*DNF*
I received a review copy a long time ago and sadly this didn't work for me. Middle grade is a hard genre for me to get into since I'm not the targeted age and I rarely find books that keep me reading. This book just didn't feel like one that would jam with me. Once the fairies were described, it was a turn off. Fairies/fae are things in books that I'm not always a fan of. Plus the writing felt too over the top and I just didn't get enough of Kelcie to care about her. Her back story felt too generic in the beginning. When you try to read something for three weeks to a month and you only read just barely three chapters, that's a sign that it's not for you....

Kelcie had a great, fierce attitude. Some of the major twists were a bit obvious. It was still fun ed. I enjoyed the characters and the friendships. It's like Nevermoore series, which i truly enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacmillanTor-Forge for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a super fun, action-packed fantasy! Right from the get-go the action starts, and it paces itself nicely throughout the entire book. Lewis' Celtic-inspired worldbuilding was wonderful, and I appreciated that she took the time to phonetically pronounce some of the words for the readers when new characters or creatures were introduced that had traditionally-spelled Celtic names. My only complaint about this book is that a wide variety of characters were introduced from the very start of the book, so initially, it was a little confusing trying to keep everyone straight. I'll certainly be recommending this title to my middle-grade readers who are looking for more series about magical schools.

3.5/5

This book starts off with a 12 year old child who was abandoned by their parents being unexpectedly attacked by an otherworldly creature while on a school field trip to a museum. Then they end up going to a magic school.

If this sounds exactly like Percy Jackson mashed with Harry Potter.... well, that's exactly what it read like.

I found the beginning of this story pretty derivative, not to mention juvenile - I'm pretty sure even my 10 year old wouldn't pull someone's hair just because they don't like them, but somehow I'm supposed to root for a 12 year old protagonist who behaves this way. Something about it just didn't gel for me and I almost quit reading.

I kept going though and it actually grew on me. It's definitely a lower middle grade tale with little truly scary or taxing elements. There's a found family aspect to the friendships formed at the school that was kind of nice, although I honestly thought the crush/romance aspect, although minor, was super unnecessary for 12 year old protagonists. Why couldn't they just be good friends?? Even the aforementioned PJ and HP series waited until the characters were a bit older before really going down that path.

The main thing that sets this book apart is the Celtic mythology aspects, but unfortunately I felt this wasn't really utilised to it's full potential or even explained. What the heck is a "fianna"?? The word is used with frequency but only explained in a glossary I didn't find until the end (granted I was reading an ebook). There are a few Celtic words thrown around but mostly they seemed just slapped onto novel worldbuilding.

Despite sounding a bit negative here, I do think a younger age group might enjoy this one. I'd recommend it for kids who aren't quite ready for the big guns like PJ and HP. The story is simpler, younger, and might be more enjoyable if you're not experiencing deja vu from the classics of middle grade literature.

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy of the Unbreakable Arts brings to mind Alan Gratz’s League of Seven or Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor series: small group of middle school students who have extraordinary abilities and superhuman level snark join together to solve a grander mystery, make friends, and possibly save the world. Not necessarily in that order, but it’s a winning formula for a fun, enjoyable start of a new series. I look forward to seeing what Kelcie will accomplish with her fianna and den mates in upcoming installments.

In my opinion, this is a wonderful read. I really enjoyed it in lots of ways. Through the characters to plot to everything else in between. Thank you so much for the copy to read. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

This book was a joy to read. Magical academy stories can get stale, but the non-traditional school setting mixed with Celtic mythology was refreshing. Kelcie is a great protagonist, with a believable mix of determination and self-doubt. The mystery of her origins drives the story, and the payoff during the final reveal is absolutely worth the wait.

The author did a great job of slowly including bits of mythology. I'm not as familiar with Celtic mythology (the exception being Scathach, my favorite warrior woman) but she introduced them in a way that I wasn't inundated by names and places.

I'll admit the beginning and ending of the book tripped me up a bit. The novel starts off with a bang, as Kelcie is (briefly) kidnapped at the end of the first chapter, dragged into the basement of the museum before she's flung into a world of magic and mayhem. I would have liked to spend a little bit more time with her in the human world, and see how magic appears in her periphery. It's later touched on that some of her foster parents may have been magical, but Lewis never delves into that. The ending of the book had a wonderful conclusion but was preceded by a flashback that felt a bit heavy-handed. All was revealed over the span of a couple of pages, and while the payoff was there, it felt a little anti-climatic at the same time.

Kelcie Murphy is brimming with potential. The main quartet is likeable, and seeing a disabled character taken seriously and given a chance to shine in the spotlight is wonderful. I look forward to future installments in this series!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in return for an honest review.

4.5 stars for this book, and I'm already excited for book two! I love when fantasies are set in magical schools because I think every kid dreams of getting to be around their friends all the time. I loved the setting of the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts, the Celtic mythology woven in throughout the story, and the relationship between Brona and Kelcie.

Loved these lines in the book...

“That when you four work together, there is nothing that can stop you from accomplishing your goals.”

“You’re trying so hard to please everyone else that you’ve forgotten to be true to who you really are.”

I absolutely adored my time spent with Kelcie Murphy and the Academy.

Erika Lewis has all the hallmarks of a classic fantasy writer, dropping us right into the action and never letting go. We have a fierce underdog heroine, suitably dastardly villains, and of course, a secret magic school that is absolutely BURSTING with adventure, competition, lore, and secrets.

I am always a sucker for magic school stories, and in this case, Lewis balances that classic feeling with undeniable freshness that stems from how wonderfully drawn all the characters were. I never stopped rooting for Kelcie and her friends (#sagaforever) and I cannot WAIT to return to this heart-pounding, timeless world.

Wow, this book was pretty good. I always love to see newer books that involved magic and school and epic battles. Kelcie, the main character, goes to girl in foster care with little memories of her past, to finding out family secrets and unleashing her hidden powers. Add in a case agent who is actually a fairy and a found found in her new school and you get a great magical adventure. Kelcie Murphy is in for an adventure of a lifetime and a battle her team has worked hard towards. The book has a great pace: it wasn't too fast or too slow. It is definitely a good pace for the targeted demographic. I enjoyed Kelcie's character evolution. She went from having no agency to not only gaining that through her journey but becoming more confident in her own skin and power. It was great to see Kelcie open up more from the girl we were first introduced with. She no longer stays the outcast in the academy. She instead finds amazing friends and a great leader who become her found family

Speaking of friends, I really enjoyed how the author took different approach with certain character. Niall is the first friend of Kelcie and is loyal through and through. They connect instantly. While Brona and her relationship with Kelcie takes time to form that strong bond. It shows how real and different each friendship can be and how patience can be a key in developing those friendships. When thinking about the storyline, I particularly enjoyed the many twists and turns the story took. It allowed means a reader to keep the pages turning. The story draws on Celtic mythology and adds such a mystifying magical element to it. Kelcie has magic but the author adds on other magical elements such as Kelcie's necklace. I am a sucker for seeing magic in different forms so it was a pleasure reading the significance that each magical element had to the overall story.

This is a great read for all ages and a story that will have older readers feel the nostalgia of the magical reads they once read.

One day on a field trip to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Kelcie is startled by the appearance of her social services case worker, Elliott and a police officer. Her first thought is that she's moving group homes again, but when they lead her down into the basement of the museum, she become suspicious. She's even more shocked when they morph into ice fairies. Elliott promises to tell Kelcie who her parents are, in return she must agree to place her hands on an ancient artifact while reciting words in a language, she didn't even know she knew how to speak. I'm seriously having Percy Jackson vibes with this opening.

Eventually, Kelcie is able to break free from her captors and follows them hoping they will finally tell her about her parents, but then they seemingly vanish next to a tree. As Kelcie explores the tree and places her necklace on the tree bark, she is transported to the Otherworld, a place that has known nothing but war, with the land of Winter and Summer trying to defeat one another. The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts is situated in the land of Summer and trains it's students to be warriors. Upon her arrival, Kelcie meets Niall and learns that a new term is starting at the magical school, and she has arrived in time to complete the trials for entrance. Receiving a coveted spot at the Academy will mean that Kelcie will be trained by the legendary Celtic warrior, Scáthach, and possibly she can finally find information about who her parents are, and why they abandoned her in Boston Harbor eight years ago. Yep, feeling a little bit of Sophie from the Keeper of the Lost Cities vibes now.

Kelcie begins the story not knowing who her parents are and that she has any magical powers. Once she unleashes her magic it at first overwhelms her, such power is difficult to manage, with the help of her new friends she begins to learn how to control it. Not only does she have one power, but she is Saiga, one who can control multiple elements, like air, fire and wind, which sets her apart from the other students, causing her to feel isolated at first. The only element she has difficulty with is water, because of a fear resulting from a near drowning incident when she was abandoned in the Boston Harbor. Kelcie's confidence begins to grow as she becomes more knowledgeable about her family and powers. The Academy setting reminded me of the Magisterium Series by Holly Black and a little bit of the Lightning Thief too. I loved the way each of the teams/units (Fianna) consists of individuals from different Dens (grouped by their magical powers, like Chargers, Adders, Cats, Ravens and Saiga). I find the magic that they each wield is quite interesting, and the challenges that they face as a part of the initiation quite fun. Each one of the members of a team brought their own strengths to the challenges and combined it felt like they were unstoppable. Kelcie grows into her team, and you can see how they're becoming more than just friends but a family who rely on and care for one another. Plus, Niall and Kelcie make such a cute couple, rooting for them for sure. Lastly, I enjoyed the Celtic mythology the story is inspired by, although I'm finding I haven't read nearly enough. I did appreciate the inclusion of a glossary at the back of the book with descriptions for the terms used in the story, the various legends the characters are based off and loved the descriptions of the monsters and creatures that Kelcie and her team face. Overall, I enjoyed the battle scenes, the magical academy, the twist and turns, the surprising reveal at the end, the nice mixture of magical powers and the kick butt team. Looking forward to seeing what happens next for Kelcie.

I really wanted to like this book, but honestly it fell flat for me.

It seemed to be following very specific tropes, but forgetting to give Kelcie at least one kind person in her life. Instead she seems to be dumped with horrible adults, and stuck in horrible situations again and again.

I just didn't connect with any of the characters and couldn't get myself invested in this story.

4.5 Stars, rounded up.

What a fantastic middle grade this was. Erika Lewis did a great job of pulling in from well-known and even lesser-known Celtic lore in this very akin to Percy Jackson story. While I do feel there were too many characters given too many names, Lewis also provided us a glossary in the back to help with that. The character development of our main character and her fiann was fantastically done. The turmoil of wanting to find out about your unknown family while wanting to protect your found family felt real to me. I adore Kelcie and the development of that friendship with Brona was everything.

This was genuinely one of the better middle grade stories I've read in quite some time.

Wow, this was so lovely!! I love the focus on Celtic mythology - and the main character was such a badass. I would have loved to read this when I was younger!

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley & TorForge books for the opportunity to read this incredible ARC. Erika Lewis offers a fresh and fulfilling take on a popular-if-full genre! Her worldbuilding is exquisite, her characters relatable, and the story itself absolutely riveting. I gave myself a full week for Kelcie Murphy and ended up finishing it over the weekend instead. The interweaving of Celtic mythology is skillfully done without the familiar sense of it being forced into the story. I definitely recommend!

Kelcie Murphy and the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts by Erika Lewis is a Rick Riordan-esque middle grade adventure about a girl who finds herself transported into a world of Irish mythology. Centred around Kelcie who grew up in Boston, knowing nothing about herself apart from her name, the story soon evolves into a fast-paced adventure when she finds her way to the Academy for the Unbreakable Arts and starts finding out more about her true powers and heritage. As is the norm with these sorts of books, she soon becomes part of an ancient struggle for the destiny of the world together with her friends. It is fun and a quick read – a very entertaining book that I think lots of readers will enjoy. However, I have to say it is not one that stands out, not in terms of plot, writing or characters. It is perfectly fine, but not one that I think I’ll be thinking about again or recommending to people much. If you think the premise sounds great, go for it, it may work better for you than it did for me though!

The Otherworld is at war. The Academy for the Unbreakable Arts trains warriors. And Kelcie Murphy--a foster child raised in the human world--is dying to attend.
A place at AUA means meeting Scáthach, the legendary trainer of Celtic heroes. It means learning to fight with a sword. It means harnessing her hidden powers and--most importantly--finding out who her parents are, and why they abandoned her in Boston Harbor eight years ago.
When Kelcie tests into the school, she learns that she's a Saiga, one of the most ancient beings in the Otherworld. Secretive, shunned, and possessed of imposing elemental powers, the Saiga are also kin to the Otherworld's most infamous traitor.
But Kelcie is a survivor, and she'll do whatever it takes to find her parents and her place in their world. Even if that means making a few enemies.

I absolutely loved this novel which narrates the story of Kelcie Murphy, renegade foster kid and closet magical Saiga.

Lewis has created The Otherworld, a place brimming with magic and adventure but also danger and mystery where Murphy is navigating her way through trying to develop and control her powers, solve the mystery of her parents’ abandonment and not get kicked out of AUA.

Adventure and mayhem, friendship and humour all topped off with an epic battle between good vs evil; this story had me unable to flick the pages quick enough to see what happened next and if Kelcie and her band of mismatched, magical mates won the war and graduated from their first year at the academy successfully with all limbs intact (if you know you know).